LANPHER MEMORIAL LIBRARY MAIN ST. HYDE PARK, VT 802-888-4628 HOURS: MONDAY 12-7 TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY 10-5 SATURDAY 10-1 - Lanpher Memorial Library, 141 Main Street, Hyde Park, VT 888-46285 Monday 12-7; Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday 10-5; Saturday 10-1

New Vermont Laws Pertaining to Public Libraries!

8/4/2026

Two pieces of Library related legislation went into effect on July 1, 2026:

The first, Act 127, was introduced by Senator Ruth Hardy and we are grateful for her ongoing support of libraries here in Vermont. Highlights of this act include:
Easing public library access to funds for facility upgrades; requiring the Agency of Education to amend the grant process for early childhood literacy, and after-school/summer programs;
designating the third Monday in October as Vermont Libraries Day. (2026 Vermont Libraries Day is October 19th!)

The second act, Act 150, includes libraries in the list of sensitive community spaces where civil and immigration arrests (such as by ICE) without a judicial warrant are restricted. In addition to public libraries, the expanded protection areas include schools, state buildings and offices, public libraries, hospitals, polling places, shelters, social service sites, licensed children's camps, and places of worship.

A Year in Review 2025

1/16/2026

The Lanpher Memorial Library is entering in to our 110th year serving Hyde Park.

Here are some highlights of 2025. Programs, partnerships, successes and more.

January 2025:
We partnered with the Lamoille Neighbors to present a virtual visit with Bill McKibbon called "Back to the Wall, Face to the Sun: Where we stand on the climate fight". Over 50 people tuned in to listen and ask questions. You can see the recording by visiting our "Links & Other Community Resources" page.

We continued our once/month out reach visits to Round Hill Child Care Center in North Hyde Park. Each month we drop of bins of books for them to borrow, and stay to read a few stories together.

We started up our annual Red Clover Book Award Discussion series for homeschooling families with children ages K-4th grade, and added a Golden Dome Book Discussion for children 4-8th grade. These award programs encourage students to read and explore books on the list and vote for their favorites in the spring. These children choice book awards programs have been a Vermont tradition for many years, and we love giving home school students the chance to take part.

February 2025:
Together with the Lamoille Family Center, we received a Literacy Grant from the Morrisville Rotary and held a CHICKEN SOUP WITH RICE event at the Hyde Park Elementary School Gym. Inspired by Maurice Sendak's book and Carole King's song, children who attended got to choose two brand new books to keep, plus fun writing utensils and blank notebooks for writing in. There was a Chicken Soup with Rice StoryWalk® set up around the gym, a sing-a-long with Lesley Grant, and of course hot chicken soup with rice to enjoy donated by MoCo. It was a perfect event for a cold, blustery February day!

The Library held our annual Mystery Ingredient Challenge in February. The program is designed for 4-8th grade, but younger kids can join too! Young chefs sign up in advance, and receive a bag of 4 mystery ingredients to take home. They have a week to create a dish using the mystery ingredients and others from their own pantries. (We offer grocery store gift cards, no questions asked to supplement the supplies for families). Kids send a picture of their completed dish, along with a recipe card and taste tester evaluation. Each kid who completes the challenge gets a fun prize. Visit this page on our website to see the photos of all of our past challenges!  https://www.lanpherlibrary.org/mystery-ingredient-challenge.htmlwww.lanpherlibrary.org/mystery-ingredient-challenge.html

March 2025:
We held our SPRING CLEANING BOOK SALE!
A full week of selling books by donation will happen again this year on March 23-28, 2026 during our open hours.

April 2025:
We kicked off National Library Week on Sunday, April 6th with a Lamoille County Libraries partnership event. We showed the documentary, "Free for All: The Public Library", at Vermont State University, Johnson Campus. The event brought in viewers from all over Vermont and our panel with Kendra Aber Ferri of the Morristown Centennial Library, Aurora River then from the Varnum Memorial Library (and now Director of Johnson Public Library), Catherine Delneo Commissioner and State Librarian; and Mary Danko, President of the Vermont Library Association made up the panel discussion facilitated by Amy Olsen.

May 2025:
We held our annual Wishtree day on Thursday, May 1st. Throughout May and June, we invite folks from the community to write wishes on scraps of fabric and tie them to the branches of the oak tree in front of the library. Based on the book Wishtree, by Katherine Applegate, our oak tree holds the wishes of our community for months. The wishes are heart warming and heart breaking and can be for anything your heart desires.

Hyde Park Elementary School's Art Walk took place in May. The Lanpher Library held an exhibit in our Community Room and families were able to stop in the Library to view student artwork as part of the school/community art collaboration.

At the Vermont Library Conference in May, I (Amy Olsen) was awarded with the Sarah C. Hagar Award for distinguished service and significant contributions to the Lanpher Library and the field of Librarianship in Vermont.

June 2025:
The Hyde Park Energy & Conservation Committee wrote a grant to help town buildings with ways to be more efficient. A new mini-split was installed upstairs in the Library as part of this grant. Now, the upstairs is as nice and cool as the rest of the building in the summertime!

July 2025:
Summer Reading was underway, and our annual Children's Literacy Foundation (CLiF) book giveaway was an exciting author visit with Lorian Tu! She got kids excited about reading and each child in attendance got to choose 2 brand new, free books to keep!
Our annual partnership with our good neighbors at the Johnson Public Library continued this summer bringing Vermont Institute of Natural Science (VINS), and the Lamoille Family Center joined in on the collaboration to bring No Strings Marionette Company too.

Friend of the Library member, Jack Wool, entertained our Night Owl Story Time Friends on July 7th the Tanabata Festival night in Japan with Kamishibai Theater presentation.

We sponsored a Sneak Peek of the Lamoille County Players summer show "Meet Me in St. Louis". Actors, Directors, Choreographers and Costumers entertained and informed us about how a show comes together! Look forward to more Lamoille Co. Players/Lanpher Library partnerships in 2026, including a sneak peek of the Addams Family on June 1st at 6:00.

The Lanpher Library held our 3rd Annual Trivia Night at the Gihon Valley Hall! Teams were made up of families, friends, committee members, and a honeymooning couple from out of state who just happened upon our Trivia Night! Although there was a team with the most points, all teams win something!

August 2025:
In July we started a monthly series of programs at Sterling View Community Center. July was a Green Cleaning hands-on workshop with Lamoille Regional Solid Waste Management District. In August we had Vermont Historian Amanda Gustin come to talk about Justin Morgan's Horse. Jumping ahead, in September we have VINS come with live owls, and October a talk from Hyde Park's own Susan Moore about hearing loss and voice change as we age. November brought VT author, speaker, historian Howard Coffin to discuss the Great Bennington Battle.

September 2025:
Hyde Park Home Day brought our annual book sale on the Library lawn and a fantastic celebration of Hyde Park!

The Lanpher Library had our inaugural Cookbook Book Club! Join us for the once/month book club, where participants discuss a cook book and make recipes to bring in and share! The space smells amazing on the last Saturday of each month at 11:00a.m. If you want to join, reach out to Nicole: [email protected]

October 2025:
Caldecott award winning author and illustrator, Jason Chin came to the Library, He did 2 presentations so that every student at Hyde Park Elementary School was able to walk to the Library and meet him, hear about his books and how he creates them. This was sponsored by a grant from the Green Mt. Fund, but was inspired by an original donation from Betty and Norman Andrews. The original donation was given to us to host a visit with HPES students and a Vermont author. Over the years, we've used the donation to host visits with Jim Arnosky, Josh Funk, Kate Messner, and Kekla Magoon. We hope to continue the legacy of Norman and Betty and find ways to pay for more author visits moving forward.

We held our annual Pumpkin Carving contest! With a sponsorship from Susan Martin Century 21 Realty, we offer free pumpkins (while supplies last) or folks can use their own...and have prizes for different age categories, including Best in Show! Our Best in Show winner 2025 has been participating in the contest for years and was SO excited to win.

Alyx the Magician kept us entertained while the judges did the judging, and an amazing treasure hunt sent us all around the Village of Hyde Park to find fun Halloween packets of goodies.

November 2025:
In November we gave our Annual Awards in a lovely ceremony.
The Spirit of Community Awards were given to Sharon & Jack Anderson, and Susan Bartlett. The Legacy Awards were given in memory of Alma Draper and Lois McGee. Learn more about our awards and recipients on our page:
https://www.lanpherlibrary.org/annual-community-awards.htmlwww.lanpherlibrary.org/annual-community-awards.html
While the Lanpher Library didn't have too many extra programs in the month of November, our space was used a lot! 32 times by 14 different groups and organizations!

December 2025:
Oh what fun it is to carol throughout Hyde Park Village! A group of merry singers started out at the Library and sang throughout the village. The Hyde Park Fire Department timed the tour of their truck...decked with lights...to coincide with the carolers heading out, so we were greeted with joy and lights from the start...and ended up warming up with cocoa and cookies back at the Library.
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The importance of Summer Reading!

6/25/2025

The Nationwide, Collaborative Summer Library Program Theme for 2025 is "Color Our World"!

The Lanpher Library will highlight books, stories, and programs based on this theme..and celebrate the beautiful artwork with bookmarks, stickers and of course, our reading logs for children and teens.

Why do Public Libraries put so much emphasis on Summer Reading?

According to the American Library Association, summer reading programs began in public libraries in 1890s as a way to encourage school children, particularly those in urban areas and not needed for farm work, to read during their summer vacation, use the library and develop the habit of reading.

Summer Reading Programs are so important because numerous reports show that summer reading prevents the decline in children's reading development that can occur when children are away from school and out of reading practice.

Libraries like the Lanpher Library work hard to make summer reading fun!

We love helping young children build reading and language skills; motivating teens to read and discuss literature; and encouraging adults to experience the joy of reading!

Check out some of the fun programs, displays, and incentives we're offering this summer.

National Library Week

4/11/2025

As National Library Week comes to an end, I write to say how special it is to have a week set aside each year to celebrate the many roles that Libraries play in our communities.
You can walk into any public library in the country and find similarities and differences to your own home library. That is because each library adapts and changes to meet the unique needs and interests of their community to the best of their ability, time, and budget.
Libraries always step up in times of hardship, and the role of the public library is just as important now as ever before.
Thank you for cherishing the Lanpher Memorial Library for the past 109 years.

Black History Month

2/5/2025

Black History Month began in 1925 when Carter G. Woodson and the organization he founded, the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), conceived and announced Negro History Week. His intent was to raise awareness of African American's contributions to civilization and the event was first celebrated in February 1926 during a week that encompassed the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. In 1976, the nation's bicentennial, the celebration was expanded to a month by President Gerald R. Ford.

The Lanpher Library has a display featuring some of our collection featuring the contributions of African Americans, with more to be discovered throughout our collection.

What can we do to celebrate Black History Month?
The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), founders of Black History Month have these suggestions:
1) Explore Black History
Learn about Black history by exploring your local community, reading books by Black authors, and visiting Black or African-American history museums.
Where in VT? Visit the Vermont African American History Trail: https://vermontvacation.com/things-to-do/trip-ideas-itineraries/heritage-trails/african-american-heritage-trail/
2) Read Books or Stories written by Black Authors
Discover unique perspectives and rich narratives reflecting divers experiences and cultural histories.
3) Support Black-owned businesses.
By choosing to shop from Black-owned businesses, you contribute to greater diversity in the marketplace and help create opportunities for underrepresented communities. Consider exploring shops, restaurants, and services to uplift these valuable businesses.
Check out the Vermont Professionals of Color Business Directory:
https://www.vtpoc.net/bipoc-business-directory/
4) Learn about Black leaders.Learn about influential Black leaders who have shaped history and continue to inspire. Follow ASALH on social media that highlights the legacies of Black leaders through its Black Facts posts, which celebrate the achievements and impact of these pivotal figures
Link to ASALH Facebook page:
.https://www.facebook.com/ASALH.BlackHistory

5) Watch films and documentaries created by Black filmmakers. Explore an array of films and documentaries by talented Black filmmakers. Discover diverse narratives that celebrate the rich experiences, cultures, and histories of the Black community.

6) Commit beyond February
Make a strategic commitment to Black History Month, and don't limit your efforts to just Februrary.

Learn more:
https://asalh.org/

The Role of a Public Library

12/3/2024

"Libraries are more than just books", but what exactly does that mean?
What is the role of a public library in a community?
Of course, we're here to serve the informational needs of the public. We're trained to help people find accurate information, whether that means inside a book, or from an online source.
We talk a lot about Libraries as "third spaces", meaning: not home, not work, but a third place where people can connect with others.
Connecting people with each other, with information,and with a sense of community, this is the heart of a public library.

Act 150: Relating to Vermont Public Libraries

7/23/2024

On July 1, 2024 a new law went into effect that lowers the age of library patron confidentiality from 16 to 12.
Over the following weeks and months, we'll update all patron records marked as a "juvenile" record, so that patrons age 12-17 will be moved to a teenager category, and will be given the option to allow, or not allow a parent or guardian to have access to their library account. Regardless of what they choose when they update their account with us now, they can choose to change that at any time under this new law.
We'll ask parents of children under the age of 12 to add a birth date to their child's library account so that we can make sure we comply with the confidentiality law when the patron turns 12.

Click to read Act 150

The Faraway Paladin Manga Series

11/21/2023

The Lanpher Memorial Library has several new Manga series. A new series at our library is:
The Faraway Paladin. The first 10 volumes of the manga series have been translated into
English and the 1
st
Omnibus volume (combining 1 & 2) is now available at the library.
In the city of the dead, long since ruined and far from human civilization, lives a single human
child. His name is Will, and he’s being raised by three undead. The three pour love into the boy, and
teach him all they know. But one day, Will starts to wonder: “Who am I?”
Will must unravel the mysteries of this faraway land, and unearth the secret pasts of the undead. He
must learn the love and mercy of the good gods, and the bigotry and madness of the bad. And when
he knows it all, the boy will take his first step on the path to becoming a Paladin.
From the English language publisher, J-Novel Club.
The anime first season was from October 2021 to January 2022. A second anime season is
airing starting October 2023. The anime series is available to watch on the streaming service
Crunchyroll.
The Manga reading age is listed as 13 years and up.

Water Bottle Filling Station at the Library!

5/24/2023

Stop by the Lanpher Library to fill up your water bottles at our new Water Bottle Filling Station that we intsalled with a grant through Green Up Vermont, sponsored by Chittenden Solid Waste District and the VT Agency of Natural Resources. (Thank You!)

If you don't have a water bottle with you...don't buy a single use plastic bottle! Buy one of these re-usable aluminum bottles for $5 and fill it up!

Learn more about Green Up Vermont's initiative to reduce the amount of single use plastics, and see if you can recognize anyone in the WCAX piece:
https://www.wcax.com/2022/06/28/green-up-vermont-tries-new-method-reduce-plastic-waste/www.wcax.com/2022/06/28/green-up-vermont-tries-new-method-reduce-plastic-waste/

Hyde Park Views!

8/3/2022

Hyde Park is excited to announce the official start of a fundraising campaign for an amazing art installation called "Hyde Park Views" at the trail head of the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail on Depot St. in Hyde Park, and YOU can help make it happen!
If the campaign reaches its $20,000 goal by September 8th, Hyde Park Views will receive a matching grant of $40,000 from DHCD’s Better Places program.
To learn more, and to donate (any amount at all will be gratefully received!) visit: https://www.patronicity.com/project/hyde_park_views#!/